Cosmographs

A cosmograph is a graphical representation of the universe or earth, however, in modern times, it has become a horizontal, X-shaped chart with prongs that represent input on one side and output on the opposite side. Cosmographs are a type of pie chart, and they offer information about elements in relation to the whole.

Cosmographs are more detailed pie charts, and like pie charts they suffer from clear limitations. They can be utilized to aggregate data that is substantial in size, however, the scope of complexity and interpretation is rather limited. You can only present general chunks of data, and relationships between data are hard to see. Its main use appears to be in the realm of business for the purposes of graphical financial statements. Cosmographs, in this specific area of application, are much more practical than existing media (e.g., a 30-page report), which slows the process of interpretation and analysis.

In business, it is a light way to present some of the substance of cashflow reports. It can be used to express things like the path and distribution of financing from the point of investment funds, sales, and loans. It would lightly itemize these elements and then combine them into larger elements that are routed through the chart's center. On the opposite side, those inputs are organized and then divided into the outputs they become. In this case, those financial inputs would then be transformed into their destination such as the marketing department, production, and possibly the outputs of those elements.

Cosmographs also have applications in software development and systems management. Their ability to explain inputs, outputs, routing, and distribution has applications in a wide variety of areas of development. They can be used for things like optimizing the user experience, controlling the scope of performance, and managing networks.